Press release - October 2, 1999
BHOPAL, India — Over 2000 people, primarily survivors of Union Carbide’s disastrous gas leak in 1984, gathered today at the gates of the abandoned factory to send their calls for justice to Union Carbide and the government of India via a unique cyber action campaign organised by Greenpeace and Bhopal based survivor support organisations.
On the eve of 53 years of Independence, the gas victims visited internet booths set up for the day in a public square in Atal Ayub Nagar, near the Union Carbide factory and sent emails demanding justice from Union Carbide.
Residents in the settlements have no alternative but to use
water contaminated with poisons left behind by the US multinational
in the now abandoned factory. The emails highlighted the demands of
Bhopal survivors for clean water, a clean up of the factory site
and compensation for the victims of the disaster.
The internet offers us a unique opportunity to directly tell
Union Carbide and Dow that we won't let it hide behind a cloak of
corporate anonymity while we, the survivors, continue to die. The
fight against Union Carbide and for justice in Bhopal is clearly
growing in strength and will continue until justice is delivered,
said Abdul Jabbar, a gas victim who now runs a survivor support
organisation called Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udyog Sanghatan
(BGPMUS).
More than 15 years after the disaster which took the lives of
16,000 and permanently injured more than half a million, the people
of Bhopal continue to await justice, compensation, medical relief
and economic rehabilitation. The sufferings of the gas victims
living around the now-abandoned Union Carbide factory is aggravated
by the presence of several tons of toxic wastes generated by Union
Carbide that lie scattered and exposed to the environment within
the factory premises.
Later this year, Union Carbide plans to merge with Dow
chemicals, the multinational responsible for Agent Orange, a toxic
defoliant used in the Vietnam war. By merging with the infamous
creators of Agent Orange, Union Carbide cannot melt into anonymity
and cannot hide from the people whose lives it has ruined. It must
face its responsibilities, compensate its victims and clean up its
toxic legacy immediately, said Nityanand Jayaraman, Greenpeace Asia
toxics campaigner in India.
A 1999 scientific study by Greenpeace confirmed the presence of
several life-threatening poisons, including mercury, other heavy
metals and chlorinated pesticides and pollutants in the wastes
scattered around the factory. The study, which also analysed
groundwater samples from sources currently used by residents living
around the factory, revealed the presence of toxic pollutants, some
of which are carcinogenic. The investigation also found more than
20 tons of hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) stored in sacks lying within
an open shed in the factory. HCH is a persistent organic pollutant
and an environmental poison linked to immune system and
reproductive disorders.
This criminal neglect must not continue. From tomorrow, everyone
can help the people of Bhopal put this tragedy behind them by
emailing Union Carbide to demand that it cleans up its toxic waste
and by calling on the government of India to provide clean water
for the surviving victims, added Jayaraman.